C. elegans is a well-studied model used in ageing and has been utilised in the analysis of not only the fundamental processes which contribute to ageing, but also of age related diseases. Traditional techniques of lifespan evaluation involve the manual examination of a synchronised ageing population of C. elegans and assessment of the fraction of the population which are still living by means of individual physical stimulation. The data accumulated in this manner can be plotted over time to generate a Chronological Lifespan (CLS) profile. This method has the disadvantage that it is time consuming, subjective and subject to human error.
Automated methods for characterising cellular motion, such as those described in US2008/0304732, have been developed. However, these methods require significant computer processing power and time to perform complex image deconvolution and data analysis.
GB2479628 discloses a method for tracking the motion of a biological object. The method comprises the successive subtraction of a number of images from a reference image allowing the tracking of motion of a single biological object over time.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,789,242 describes a method for determining the toxicity of water-soluble substances by measuring the change in mobility of individual organisms within a population over time.
WO2007/042044 describes a method for determining a change in a cell population over time as a method for selecting embryos for in vitro fertilisation.
The development of a high throughput automated method for determining the mobility of a population of organisms would be of great advantage in ageing experiments. The inventors have developed such a method which can be used to assess the chronological lifespan of a model organism by examining the mobility of a given population. The mobility can then be quantified and expressed as a fraction of the number of organisms in the group to provide a mobility coefficient (MoCo).